Settlement

Sarah Wennersten is a personal trainer who’s spent many years as such and she’s literally trained people of all ages and fitness levels – all types of men and women from their early twenties’s to their late nineties’s. So, she has a very good idea of how fitness and personal training goals and obstacles vary by person. She has said that the best way to go about getting fit is to try different things and to constantly push and challenge yourself through out the entire process.

Today, she runs her own self defense class for women called “Inside and Out: Fitness For The Whole You” and it combines several different types of self defense and fitness for all of the women who participate in her classes. Each day in the class features a different fitness or self defense discipline including: kickboxing, yoga, martial arts, self defense etc. Wennerstern feels as though it’s the best way to expand her students’ horizons and keep them on their toes.

Wennersten says “…Only you can decide for yourself what your fitness goals and aspirations are and what the best way to reach them are. A trainer can only help guide you along your journey.”

As for Wennersten herself, she’s trained and fought in MMA and kickboxing and has had seven amateur fights in her career and that includes the time she she fought for the police department in a police versus firefighters match. She won her one kickboxing fight, as well as all of her boxing fights but lost her one MMA fight. However, her focus is now solely on her class and her students and training them to the best of her ability. Her career as a self-defense instructors is all that matters and that shows through the skill level and satisfaction of all of her students.

Environmental Stress. What does that even mean? Well, it means in order for you to get fully fit in the most efficient way possible you must consider the fact that things like heat and A/C are unnatural and constantly training in conditions with optimal temperatures might be slowing your fitness journey down unnecessarily. Also consider the fact that when fighters/boxers are training to get in shape and into fighting form in a hurry they train in extremely high temperatures to help themselves do so. This also helps their conditioning as well. There has also been the recent health trend of cryotherapy where athletes will spend time in extreme freezing temperatures in a closed chamber in order to help rejuvenate their bodies to help maximize their own performance results. Now, the point is not that you need to go to one extreme or the other but doing something like running outside on a hot summer day can help push the average person to their limit which is exactly the result we’re looking for. Consider this concept similar to the concept of eating natural and fresh food versus eating processed foods – we all know which one is good for us and which one isn’t right? The natural option. The same goes for your environment training and living in natural surroundings is better for you than doing so in an environment with mostly artificial elements such as temperature. In the end, consider anything artificial: foods, temperature etc as a comfort option – it’s nice when you are relaxing and/or on vacation. However, when you are on your normally daily grind you should always try and opt for the natural choice – it’s better for you!

With the market for workout supplements as strong as ever, many high school students are jumping on the bandwagon. This is not good news. In the past, the ill effects of caffeinated pre-work out drinks like N.O. Xplode have really been heightened when it came to their effects on children. Now, the spotlight is on creatine and experts are suggesting it’s for all of the wrong reasons. This study has been brought to you courtesy of http://www.martialartsarlingtontx.com.

Recent studies have shown that creatine can seriously damage a person’s liver and kidneys if not consumed properly and with caution. Unfortunately, when young teenagers take supplements they fall under the impression that “mare is better.” This, obviously, is never the case with almost every supplement on the market. So, without any legitimate way to monitor young kids taking creatine the only safe alternative is an an age restriction of eighteen years old on it.

Additionally, creatine is only meant for short term or extended short term use. Using creatine for more than a few month or a year, at the very most, can really exacerbate it’s potential for ill health effects. This is another issue for young teens that use supplements – they don’t seem to be able to comprehend or understand the concepts of cycling their supplements properly. They seem to erroneously think that once they start using a supplement they should never stop using it or else they will lose all of their progress or results.

So, there currently is no ban on creatine for people under the age of eighteen but there soon may be. Our advice is to prevent your children from taking the substance until they are old enough to understand the potentially damaging consequences for using it improperly or with out the correct advice on how to do so.

There are a ton of fitness myths and facts out there that people accept as absolute cannon. But, how can you possibly tell which is which? We’re here to help you debunk some of the most popular MYTHS. Everything on this list is a myth and we’ll even explain why.

Avoid Carbs At All Costs

The oldest myth around is to avoid carbs at all costs. This simply isn’t true. The best way to disprove this is by looking at Vegans. Vegans often eat mainly fruit but they also carbo-load since their main initiative is too avoid meant and any animal products and they are always the longest living and healthiest people on the planet.

The More You Workout, The better

This is another very common myth and it’s exactly that – a myth. There is such a thing as over-training and it can lead to serious health issues. You can seriously injure yourself, become much more prone to injury, stunt your growth an/or impede the very progress you are attempting to supplement.

Cardio Should Be Done Until You Can’t Possibly Do Any More

Not all exercises should be done until exhaustion. In fact, if you’re not a professional athlete training for an event or sport you should likely avoid doing this all together.

All Weight Training Will Make You Bulky

All though this is likely the least sensible of these myths, it is still one of the most popular. It’s really quite simple, if you train with high weight and low repetitions you will bulk up. If you train with low weight and high repetitions you will not bulk up.

Each day, martial arts is becoming more and more of a widely accepted form of fitness. There are many reasons for this. The main reason is that people are beginning to realize the level of resistance training that goes into most forms of martial arts. Ever notice the shape that wrestlers are in? It’s because of their training both burning calories and simultaneously building muscle. Most martial arts aren’t AS intense as wrestling and it’s over-the-top training regiment but they are pretty close. In the end, it comes down to how dedicated the person who’s training is to training (Hopefully that makes sense).

Many people who train martial arts notice great results in fitness and their overall physique after training for just a few months. But, like any other fitness program these results will end as soon as you stop training. So continuing to remain diligent in your routine is crucially important here. One martial art that kicks people in to shape better than most others is Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, most specifically. This martial art uses your opponents body weight as a sort of dynamic resistance that will challenge your strength, muscles, and overall endurance every time that you perform one of the thousands of techniques. In fact, each hour long session that you train probably involves you performing close to a hundred of these moves. You are also getting a workout with Jiu Jitsu even when you are the on who is having the technique performed on you. This is because by properly bracing yourself your muscles are being stimulated to a slight but considerable extent.

So, there are many martial arts out there that can help you get fit as you learn to defend yourself. But, one of the very best forms for this is Jiu Jitsu. In fact Jiu Jitsu is probably the best fighting form to practice for fitness’s sake outside of wrestling or mixed martial arts. If you’re interested in learning to fight and getting in shape at the same time then why wait? Start training today.

If your looking to get fit in the new year and you’re tired of the same old tired routine at the same gym then try these new and exciting fitness trends that will blow up in 2017:

Rowing

This is an excellent age old full body cardiovascular workout. It’s been around for many years but it’s popularity soared in 2016 and is expected to continue to do so in 2017 – check it out!

Barre

This is an exercise routine that’s based on and centered around Ballet. The idea is that the tremendously strenuous balancing moves cause so much resistance it’s fit to consider it as an excellent workout. This routine also incorporates a little bit of pilates and yoga and focuses on toning rather than cutting weight or bulking. This one might not be the best for the men out there.

Cardio Kickboxing

Cardio kickboxing is a trend that’s consistently been on the rise for a half decade now and it’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. In this full body cardio routine you will get lean and cut as well as learn how to defend yourself all in, typically, just forty five minutes!

Aqua Cycling

This one is a little more unorthodox than the others. It’s name does give it away though – you cycle in the water. Riding a stationary bike underwater provides even more dynamic resistance than would above water – you can burn up to a thousand calories each session as well as strengthening the hell out of your lower body.

We all want our children to be happy and healthy but getting them to be both in a balanced fashion is a nightmare sometimes. Most of us experience this because, for kids, happiness equals video games, apps, junk food and an overall sedentary lifestyle. It gets tougher and tougher to gets kids to be active these days. So, many of us are let no choice but to trick our children into exercising under the guise of a “fun activity.” The following is a few ideas that will help you get your kids to become more active without the fight:

Laser Tag

Laser tag might be the best option on the list because kids absolutely love it. The running and over all cardiovascular exercise they get out of it is great for helping them stay healthy. The only downside is that it can get pretty expensive to do this frequently.

Swimming

Kids love to be in the pool. During the summer, kids will spend the better part of the day in the pool. Playing around in the pool / swimming is another great cardiovascular exercise that also provides resistance so not only will they get more fit they will get more strong as well. You can keep this up during the winter months too by finding a local indoor pool to become a member of.

Martial Arts

Let’s face it, kids love to do things that they aren’t supposed to be doing. Fighting is a prime example. Why not tell them they get to go fight other kids on a daily to weekly basis with karate? This way they get what they want but they also get a great workout without even knowing it. Check out these Troy martial art birthday parties as an idea of what I mean!

Relay Races

This option may be a bit of a reach but it’s worth it to give it a shot anyway. Suggest to your kids that relay races are somewhat of an adventure or offer some prizes and/or incentives. Then they will get a very intense HIIT style cardio workout.

This trend is nothing new – it’s really just getting a good night of uninterrupted eight hours of sleep. The thing is that many of you reading this don’t quite know where to start when it comes to accomplishing this. Getting more “clean sleep” is integral to several areas of your health including your complexion, your weight, your mental health and several other areas as well. That’s not even including the obvious benefit of just feeling better overall and being more personable than “cranky.”

One of the biggest things that prevents people from getting “clean sleep” is the fact that after attaching themselves to a screen (phone, computer, tv etc) for most of the day they close out the day behind a screen too checking social media and texts right before sleep. You should leave the entire last hour before bed as “screen-free” time so that your body has a legitimate chance to wind down and prepare for rest. Another mistake that people often make when trying to get more sleep on a consistent basis is that they don’t have consistent bedtimes. Normally, people will turn in at a decent hour during the week but will stay up till all hours of the night on the weekends which prevents your body from getting into a rhythm in terms of consistent rest.

There are also the obvious blunders people make when not getting enough sleep as well. Caffeine right before bedtime is a mistake only idiots make but, did you know, that any caffeine in the last 6 hours before bed can seriously hurt your chances of getting a full eight hours? Well, it can and does. Another seemingly obvious mistake that gets made very frequently is people don’t eliminate distractions while they sleep. A great example of this is keeping your phone close by so texts/calls/notifications can wake you up throughout the night – keep your phone on silent and away from your bed. This last tip also goes without saying but we will anyway – no booze before bed. Alcohol induced slumber is extremely low quality sleep and does more harm than good. It won’t be easy at first but if you follow all of these tips and get into a routine with them you’ll be getting “clean sleep” in no time!